Despite many tasks ahead for social and economic development, China has decided to pay attention to the management and construction of public toilets.

Members of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference have proposed to build adequate, convenient and clean public toilets in urban districts over the next five to 10 years.

A recent inspection of Chongqing's public toilets showed almostall failed to reach the standard required by the state.

China's public toilets have been a cause for concern for a longtime. To have clean toilets, to drink clean water, and to live in clean surroundings are still out of reach of 900 million Chinese farmers, although 35 percent of China's 238 million farm households had clean toilets in 1998.

It is an ongoing problem too for residents in some medium or big cities in China. With an increasing floating population in cities, public toilets are often the most crowded places. In Yuzhong District, a downtown area in Chongqing, 600,000 people share 208 public toilets. People often have to put up with an unpleasant smell while they queue up for toilets.

In addition it can take hours to find a latrine while you are on a long journey. Sometimes, you can find only the most basic latrine, with one pit and mud walls.

Beijing, which will host the 2008 Olympic Games, spent 40 million yuan building or upgrading 200 public toilets last year while some cities with historical scenic spots have placed latrineupgrading on their agenda.

Chongqing, which has spent millions of yuan in rebuilding a newimage since it became a municipality in 1997, has much work to do in latrine improvement.

Gao Qixiang, chief-editor of a local newspaper on public health,said the problem of latrine concerns with not only the city's image but also people's quality of living. Discharge of untreated excrement into rivers is a major cause of intestinal diseases.

According to a survey jointly conducted by the UN Children's Fund and Chongqing, 60 percent of the children in rural Chongqing suffer from ascariasis and ancylostomiasis, which are closely related to the discharge of untreated excrement.

This year the city plans to build 50 standard public toilets indowntown areas and to upgrade existing ones.

( People's Daily February 21, 2002)